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Deer hunters gearing up for next week’s firearm season

By Jan SchultzThe Imperial Republican As of Wednesday morning, 15 area hunters have checked in deer they have bagged with archery permits. That season opened Sept. 15, but will close temporarily when next week’s firearm season, Nov. 14-22, gets underway. Ron Schoenberger at Laker’s in Enders, a Chase County deer check-in station, said activity has been about normal for archery deer season so far. “We don’t get a lot in early in the (archery) season,” he said. “The guys like to wait until it’s a little later in the season and colder.” The cold hasn’t been a problem the past month. However, there’s still a lot of corn in the field that could hamper hunters. Hunters who don’t have a permit yet and hope to hunt in the Frenchman Unit (which includes Chase County) for deer this firearm season have only the Frenchman Whitetail permit option now. A check with the Nebraska Game & Parks Commission this week shows all 2,000 Frenchman Unit permits are gone. However, there are about 800 Frenchman Whitetail permits still available out of an original 1,500 allowed in the unit. Persons holding permits for the Frenchman Unit may hunt only in the following described area: Chase, Dundy, Hayes, Hitchcock and Red Willow Counties and those parts of Dawson, Frontier, Furnas, Gosper, Lincoln and Perkins Counties south of Nebraska Highway 23 and west of U.S. Highway 283. According to the Nebraska Game & Parks website, mule deer are not allowed to be taken on Frenchman Whitetail permits. Antlerless mule deer are not allowed on Frenchman permits.